


Individual Duality

by CompletelySiriusContent



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto, Original Work, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Star Wars - All Media Types, Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Epic Battles, Friendship, Gen, Hate, Hiding the truth a bit, Hope I will be able to in the future, How Do I Tag, I promise the main character will be alive in the end, I'm Bad At Tagging, Love, Miraculous Ladybug References, My First Fanfic, No Smut, No romance because I cant write any, Original Character(s), Will update as I keep posting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CompletelySiriusContent/pseuds/CompletelySiriusContent
Summary: Lizzy, Frank and Adela are trying to live their own lives, but it seems the world has some objections. They were attacked by the army, but something seemed amiss, especially when it came to the emotions they were feeling. If that wasn't weird enough, their friend, Chris seemed to have become really powerful, being able to protect them without breaking a sweat. He does look like he was hiding something important from them...This is my first fanfiction ever, so please keep that in mind. All the fandoms do matter, since Chris basically has powers from all the main characters in them, but no characters from the said fandoms will appear (hence why this isn't a crossover). Updates won't follow a schedule but I will try to post as often as I can. Not 100% sure about the chapter count yet, probably 5 + a short epilogue.





	1. 11 in the morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will try something with the battles/important moments in each chapter and that is to recommend a soundtrack. For this chapter, it is an original track by Nick Nitro, hope you like it! Look out for the asterisks to know where it fits! (The song this time is a bit too long/the battle is too short, I will try to polish this idea for future chapters)

“Have fun! Call us if you want to be picked up!” Lizzy’s parents told her that every time she went out. However, this time she wouldn’t hang out with her high school classmates like they did during last summer. Today, she wouldn’t even be spending time with one of her best friends.

They used to get together and watch a movie or catch up to some anime they were both following or just talk about anything that crossed their minds, basically having a good time. But nowadays, they were both so busy with uni, they could only spare some time to talk on the phone about their day, funny and frustrating moments included. Some of the days, all they managed is sending a few messages, maybe a few memes.

Uni was weird; it could turn your day from being a fun and interesting one to the most frustrating and stressing day of your life. But everybody had to bear it and look on the bright side because a) what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger (in theory anyway) and b) you couldn’t get hired anywhere you wanted without a degree. Or you could, but you would need to be really lucky. Of course, you can’t rely on luck; if you try to push it too much, it will mess you up really good… and maybe even those around you.

No, today, she just wanted to take a stroll through the town alone, trying to even separate herself from her thoughts. Maybe she would buy something if she saw something she liked. But the most important thing was that she needed to relax, to get away from the deadlines, the boring teachers, the pressure. Was that too much to ask for?

Lizzy went along the main avenue of the city. She passed the fountain of the city, which of course the city spent a lot- this wasn’t the time to be upset by the local authorities’ lack of a sense of money. Therefore, she just looked at it for a bit while she kept the slow pace. Eh, maybe it didn’t look half-bad from there. She kept walking, but her mind tried to escape.

She remembered the days when she was still a high-school student, when she could be careless with her time and read as many books as she liked and watch as much anime as she wanted without considerable consequences. She used to pass by these shops every day of the week while coming home. She remembered them, even though not all of them were of interest to her.

First shop, a phone one, had a big blue sign on its roof, but it probably only got washed when it rained. She was the kind of the person who wasn’t into having the latest and greatest phone out there, so she walked on. Another one sold second-hand clothes, but only a couple of times per month and the items were really low quality even for a store like that.

Even the windows were blocked with paper and tape, which made it look like it closed permanently. Right next to these two there was a pharmacy that did prove itself useful at times. It of course had its own neon green cross which also displayed the temperature, it was a cool 25 degrees Celsius with some mild wind blowing. Fortunately, she didn’t need anything today, she was as healthy as she could ever be. There was a really cosy book shop nearby, but it didn’t have as much variety as she would’ve liked and the schedule was a bit weird to say the least. Today, if her memory was correct, the shop wasn’t even open at all, but that didn’t bother her at all.

She continued her stroll when she arrived at a small square which had some benches and trees, basically some green dotted around to break the monotony of the city. There were some areas of the town that were newer and a lot more colourful, but this one was definitely not renowned for this. The blocks of flats were doing their best to be as stealthy as they could for some huge cubes of bricks and cement, having at most some pale orange splashed on some of the walls. A lot of them used some shade of brown or beige, but all of them had lost what little colour they had to the sunlight. The green patch was very well received by every citizen in the area.

However, something bothered her, enough to make her stop. Usually, in the evening, this place was filled to the brim with people, kids playing around and young couples going for a walk. Even more, the streets up until now were basically void of people. That isn’t what bothered her the most. Neither the fact that despite the sky being a bright blue a minute ago with no rain in sight today, its colour blended with a shade of grey. No, she did stop because she suddenly felt some bad memories come back for no reason at all. And they were packed with some bad feelings too. Why did this happen? She didn’t space out too much, but when she came to, she noticed the sky being not blue like she knew it was two minutes ago, but an ash grey. The wind also stopped, making the air feel stale and lifeless.

This is when her day suddenly became more interesting when all she wanted was some peace and quiet. Also, this is why you shouldn’t tempt fate by asking rhetorical questions such as “Was that too much to ask for?”. The question clearly had an answer and it was definitely a positive one.

The sky seemed to stop darkening but the absence of… well… not only people but anything living freaked Lizzy out. However, it wasn’t complete silence. She was hearing… tires? But it wasn’t like a single car. Those were definitely more cars… maybe even some trucks? Her suspicions were confirmed somewhat when the convoy got closer along the main avenue and she got to see at least the leading vehicles. The convoy contained army trucks that had trailers with… tanks? And some kind of big and armoured cars right at the front.

As they got closer, the emotions she felt earlier ramped up in intensity. But she was really confused about them, as it was a complete mix: guilt, fear and even anger, which definitely surprised her. However, she figured out these feelings were hers, but they were stimulated by… well, she didn’t know exactly what, but the arrival of the convoy surely had something to do with it.

As it got close, Lizzy felt she needed to find a more secluded place, she didn’t want to be out in the open. Right when that thought started forming, she heard a voice coming from the lead vehicle which looked like it had a megaphone. “There’s no need to hide. It’s no use.” She thought the voice wasn’t referring to her, but then again, there was nobody around. Panic washed over her and she froze in place.

She watched as the convoy stopped near her, soldiers in military uniforms came out of the trucks with assault rifles in their hands. Finally, a commander of sorts came out the lead vehicle and he was escorted by some of the said soldiers. The commander was a tall man in a more battle-worn but still clean military uniform, with lots of pockets, pouches of ammunition and a walkie-talkie strapped on his left shoulder. He looked quite intimidating, and it looked like he had a tonne of experience under his belt. He walked the short distance between the vehicle and started talking to Lizzy, but she couldn’t hear him. She wasn’t focused at all, so she forced herself to do just that.

“– are you even listening?”

“What do you want from me? Why is there nobody around?” She also wanted to ask about those feelings but she figured she would find out eventually. Also, they seemed to decrease significantly in intensity, which she thought it was quite odd.

“No problem, I shall ask again. It is not necessary for you to get hurt. You just have to tell me one thing. Where is Chris?” His voice was ice-cold.

“Wha- what, why?”

Chris was one of her friends. They chatted pretty often about… well, a lot of stuff: books, anime, Netflix series, latest uni teachers’ shenanigans. She was, to say the least, astounded to hear his name now of all times. Has he done something that wrong that the army was after him? She didn’t even know for sure where he could be other than his home. However, if something had indeed happened, they have probably looked there already. Also, she didn’t want to make it easy for them, he was a friend after all.

“This is the last time I’m going to ask nicely. Where. Is. Chris?”

“What do you want from him?”

“I do believe you are not in a position to ask questions, so-”

“So what?” Lizzy could feel something wasn’t right. She just needed to put a tiny bit more pressure to find something out.

“I fear you must come with us, since you will not cooperate so easily.”

The commander tried to get closer and to restrain her so he could take her away. She couldn’t even fight it, those soldiers with assault rifles were looking like they were just waiting for an order. And because she might have annoyed the commander a bit, that order wouldn’t probably end well for her, especially since there were no witnesses. Lizzy still took one step back which, of course, resulted in a comment from the commander. “You do not want to resist, trust me on that.” Weirdly enough, she suddenly felt like it was going to be alright, like he won’t be able to hurt her.

That’s when the commander’s hand froze in place like somebody was holding his wrist.

“Don’t you **DARE** hurt her.” A voice echoed in the square.

But that voice… was… Chris’?! Lizzy turned to the left and… about 10 meters away stood, in fact, Chris. However, he was dressed kind of weird. Usually, he didn’t stray far from blue and black clothes. Right now, he had… well for starters, he had a red hoodie zipped down all the way to reveal a (would you know it) red T-shirt underneath, although it wasn’t the same shade, it was a touch darker. His long pants were the same shade of red as his tee, but his sneakers were that lighter red. Nonetheless, he didn’t just look like a dimmed traffic light (as much as that comparison was inevitable). His clothes had black accents: his shoelaces were black and black lines were stitched along his legs, across his arms, at the rims of the pockets and at the neckline of his T-shirt.

After being amazed by the walking strawberry, Lizzy noticed that his left hand was extended forwards and his fingers were tense like… he was holding someone’s wrist… Was he using some sort of telekinesis? How could he do that? She would definitely ask him about that later. Curiously, she felt safe and calm. How could she possibly be calm in this situation? However, she didn’t have more time to ask herself questions like that since the answers (or even more questions) were about to come.

[ ******* ](https://youtu.be/q6dgAeiEWec)

“So, you have finally arrived – “

“Get away from her or you **WILL** regret it.” She has never heard him so mad about anything.

“Will I?”

The commander raised his free hand at his soldiers. Chris just cracked his right knuckles by clenching his fist. His hoodie seemed to float a bit on him… she wasn’t sure how actually, but there was an almost electric feeling in the air.

“So be it.”

Then, a lot of stuff happened in really short time. Lizzy barely managed to keep up with it, her peripheral vision being used to the maximum. The commander lowered his other arm, ordering his soldiers to fire. Chris, with a single motion, stomped with his right foot – making a bubble-like red (but transparent) shield around her; thrust his left hand to the side – slamming the tall man into the window of the phone shop like he didn’t weigh anything, causing glass to fly everywhere; and grabbing the air with his right hand – making a bright red sword appear in it. He was holding it backwards, and with one swipe across his front he blocked every single bullet shot at him. Continuing the motion, he spun around in the air and smashed his left fist into the ground, making a shockwave through the air that threw the soldiers off balance. It was followed by a massive quantity of water which appeared from underneath their feet, ensuring they don’t get up too fast. After all that, she really needed to blink to make sure it wasn’t a dream. Right when she opened her eyes, Chris was… in front of her, inside the bubble. Lizzy realised she fell on her butt at some point, since she was sitting down on the tiles in the road.

Chris wasn’t the tallest person she ever met, but he was still above average. Yet somehow, while kneeling, his eyes were almost at the same height as hers. From less than a meter away, she noticed his clothes weren’t actually plain red, they had a texture that seemed to be constantly shifting, almost like a lava lamp. His short brown hair was nothing special, just some of it seemed a bit blown by the wind (maybe even the shockwave earlier). However, his “boring” brown eyes (as he called them) were now a shade redder, but they didn’t look menacing, quite the opposite actually. His expression complimented them, he looked extremely calm and kind. Although, her intuition told her his eyes weren’t just red for cosmetic reasons, it felt like he was aware of everything. As she started to sense a sea scent, he reached out with his hand and lightly touched Lizzy’s left arm and said “Yes, that is sea water” in a warm tone like it was completely normal and nothing has happened in the last minute.

“Are you crazy, what was that- that was incredible, how did you- “

“I know you have a lot of questions, but I can’t answer any of them here or now. I hope you can answer my question though: are you alright?”

“Yeah, my butt might hurt but other that I’m completely fine, other than a tiny but bummed that I actually wanted to just take a walk today.” She pouted at the end of that sentence, which made Chris let out a soft laugh.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about both of those… but right now you need to trust me. Close your eyes so you don’t get dizzy.”

“Dizzy? From what-” He looked her in the eyes with a very calm but serious expression. “Alright, I’ll close my eyes.”

She did just that, but then she was surprised with a tight hug from Chris.

“I’m glad you’re safe.” Again, she noticed the warmth in his voice.

However, he couldn’t feel the sea water smell anymore. He let go of the hug slowly and she opened her eyes. They were in a small apartment that she has never seen but…

“Wait. I do know this place.”

“Yes, this is where I’m staying when I’m at uni. I did talk about it.” Then he added, talking to himself: “I’m curious if he gets it…”

“Who is ‘he’? And did you just… teleport me here with you?”

“You will have your answers, uhm… tumblr user honour? With shoelaces from the president?” It was Lizzy’s time to giggle.

The apartment looked brand-new. There was the main room, which had a couch and a low table beside it with a Kindle on top. On the opposite side of the room there were some low drawers and storage cubes. In the corner, a grey armchair stood with only a colourful IKEA pillow on it. On one end of the room, there were some windows, but the main attraction of the room was the glass wall behind the couch. It gave a good view of the small (but not cramped) kitchen. The kitchen had a table and a couple of white plastic chairs at each end. One of them looked like it has never been used. In the corner, barely visible, was the standard white fridge (she hoped it had ice cream). Some random kitchen cupboards were hung on the opposite wall with some on the floor as well, which made an excellent place to prepare food. Of course, the stovetop was immaculate, it probably has only been lit on accident. Chris was definitely living to the “boys don’t cook” stereotype, but she suspected it was more of a lack of time because of uni rather than just pure laziness. Definitely a bit of laziness too though, as she knew that herself.

She might’ve looked around more, but Chris interrupted the viewing pleasure.

“I’m sorry, I have to leave now.”

“You said-”

“And I don’t plan to disappoint you. I’ll be back real soon.”

He turned to leave but spun back around with a smile on his face.

“Oh, the bath is right here” – he pointed to a closed door on the right – “if you need it, I’ve just changed the towels.”

And with that he walked out of the room. She went into the hallway after him to see where he was going, but he was already gone. She felt like she should’ve said things like “Thank you” or “You shouldn’t have bothered” but all she could say out loud after he left was “Huh. What a weird day. And it’s barely… 11 in the morning.”

A lot can happen in a day when it barely started. A lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter, the next one will introduce the next 2 characters, Frank and Adela. All suggestions are welcome, I will try to consider all of them. Is this a good time I don't have a beta reader and I am looking for someone willing to be that person?  
> Here is the song from this chapter again if you want to listen to it again: [link](https://youtu.be/q6dgAeiEWec).  
> Thank you so much to all my friends that helped a lot with suggestions and ideas, especially to a fellow fanfic writer, definitely go check out her works [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papillon10/works) (she will probably read this at some point, so... hey!). See you next time and... Happy New Year!


	2. The Dilemma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, without further ado, meet Frank and Adela!  
> As last time, look for the ******* (although I must say, the choice of song isn't the best one ever but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless)

Frank was feeling great, he was with Adela, his girlfriend, they just left the car park. He had to search around for a parking lot, the mall parking showed there were none left. They really weren’t in a hurry, they were basically walking as slow as they could, holding hands.

The weather was perfect, the streets weren’t that busy. Actually… they were empty. Ok, for a capital that was pretty weird. As he was thinking that, a couple Humvee’s pulled up near them with a couple of trucks carrying some M1A2 Abrams’. His inner geek was beaming, but he was concerned about what these were doing here. Some high-rank soldiers armed with M4A1 carbines got down from the trucks and they were definitely heading towards them.

As this went down, a really nasty feeling got to Frank, but it was gone as quick as it came. The soldiers then stood around them, ready to raise their weapons. You could feel the tension in the air.

He wasn’t going to let them hurt Adela, so he tried to shield her, but since there was a soldier in any direction, it was of no use. So he went on the offensive. He was going to distract the soldiers so she could run. There was no guarantee things would be getting better, rather the opposite. He looked her in the eye, squeezed her hand and started walking in the highest ranking soldier’s way.

“What do you want, do you want me?”

“Stop right there or we will need to stop you by using any means.” The soldier responded, but- oh no… Frank looked back and he saw that Adela was actually following him, her back towards him. He knew she was even more sceptical than he was, but she was also loyal to him as he was to her. The problem was he didn’t think this through enough to realise she would follow him… Ok, that required a new approach. He stopped.

“Not before you answer to my question.” His adrenaline and natural courage were definitely helping him right now. “I don’t care who you are and I don’t care that you have the rank of Major by the looks of it.”

“Just answer the question, what do you want?” Adela chimed in.

They have developed this sort of synchronisation of thoughts in the years since they were together. It was cute at times since they could often finish each other’s sentences but here it was crucial in maintaining at least some control over the situation.

“Stand back or we will fire!”

All the soldiers readied their guns on them. That was bad. Still, he thought he could still go with the original plan. He started walking, made a single step and…

Ok, he didn’t expect that. And by the look on her face, neither did Adela. Seemingly at the same time, the soldiers fired their guns and… his best friend, Chris, just… appeared in front of him with twin red swords in each of his hands. He then proceeded to throw them in opposite directions but around all three of them. The swords left red trails behind them that looked solid, almost like a shield. The bullets harmlessly bounced off the said shield like Nerf darts. Chris then caught each sword with his arms crossed, holding them backwards, hilt to hilt. His clothes were… red all over, quite uncharacteristic of the black and blue style he had.

“Show-off. Getting cool powers and arriving at the last second.”

“Actually… I could’ve arrived about… one millisecond later and I would’ve still been on time.” Chris responded without turning his back, as he was probably holding the shield together.

“Oh, so you didn’t even lose your sarcasm. That’s good to know. Now tell us what’s going on.”

“Now’s not really the time nor the place, I’m sorry. Are you both alright?”

Frank looked at Adela, sort of asking her the same question without actually saying it.

“Yep… I think…” She managed to say. She wasn’t that talkative when she was confused, quite the opposite to Frank.

“However, I have something to ask of you. I know it sounds weird, but sit down, I don’t want to knock you down too by mistake.”

“Why-”

“Please?”

“Sure, but you have a lot to explain.”

“Don’t worry, just give me a few minutes.”

He didn’t know why, but he felt safe. Maybe because Chris seemed confident. The introvert that was his best friend, the shy boy who messed up a lot of the time, the quiet teenager actually seemed confident for once.

[ ******* ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAPdIAL3OjI)

As soon as he and Adela sat on the ground, he split the swords, making the upper portion of the shield disappear. At the same time, a shockwave of pure air went out horizontally, stopping any bullets fired at that time and smashing all nearby windows. The swords also went away, leaving Chris’ hands free. He extended his hands with his palms open, making all the guns fly out of the soldiers hands. Then, as the soldiers got closer, he moved from one to another, kicking them, grabbing them and throwing them to the ground, while flipping and doing some crazy manoeuvres. He never got surprised, being aware of all his enemies. After the “show”, Chris got back to them like nothing happened, also dispelling the shield.

“I thought you got cool powers but damn, didn’t expect that.”

“Actually, to be honest with you…” There was his shy side. “I didn’t want to hurt them more than I needed to so I kind of went easy on them…?” Chris said as he sat down with them.

“what.” Both Adela and Frank had the same are-you-kidding-me expression.

“Yeah… I’ll tell you more when I get you to safety. For now, please do something for me. Try to synchronise your thoughts like you did earlier, I’ll try to help. Also, close your eyes. Just trust me… _blindly_ for a bit more.”

“Very funny.”

Then, Chris put his hand on his shoulder. When Frank opened his eyes out of pure reflex, he was sitting on a carpet. A carpet. After all that happened, it didn’t really surprise that his friend also had teleportation in his arsenal. It was a really nice apartment. Small, but not claustrophobic in the slightest. Chris wasn’t in the room, but he heard him knock on a door and say “Sorry to bother you, but can you come for a minute?”. He heard someone respond, but couldn’t make out who said or what they said. His buddy opened the door but he just leaned against the wall right near it. For basically the first time ever in their history, Frank couldn’t read Chris’ actual thoughts. He looked really calm and he radiated a good vibe but what was he actually thinking about?

“Please don’t sit on the carpet, I may have cleaned the place up but… there’s a good couch right there, you know?” Of course, he pointed the couch on their left.

Frank got up on his feet and helped Adela up as well. She started the conversation.

“You said you were going to explain some stuff.”

“And I will, I don’t intend to break my promise.”

“Ok, first question.” Frank chimed in. “Where are we? Wait-”

Chris chuckled. “I knew it would take you a bit before you recognised this place.”

That’s the moment a girl more or less their age entered through the door. She was shorter than him, but she definitely looked determined, but, more importantly, really curious. She probably got here first so she may have even more questions than him and Adela. He did know her…

“Hey, Lizzy!” Adela started the conversation.

“Hello!” Frank also chimed in.

“Heeey guys! Looks like Chris saved you from trouble too!” The second she said that, Frank noticed that Chris’ expression changed a bit, his smile definitely dimmed. “Glad you’re alright.”

“Oh, so you got attacked too?” Adela took the chance to talk to her, maybe Chris got to tell her… anything.

“Yeah, some soldiers tried to take me away, and then…”

“Chris happened.”

“Yep.”

Chris was still leaning, sort of half-present, half-absent from the conversation.  
“Sorry to interrupt your chat, ladies, but I think all three of us have questions that can be asked by someone in particular.”

Lizzy turned towards Chris, but, at first, it looked like he didn’t hear. After a few seconds, he got up and started talking.

“At first, I wanted to tell you a really long and boring explanation, but… I think if I show you it will be easier for all of us. What am I holding?”

Chris extended his hand with his palm open. Above it, something appeared. Something that looked like… a lightsaber? But at the same time, it wasn’t fully opaque. Frank blinked and instead of the lightsaber he saw a kunai. He then squinted and he saw a long wooden… folding fan? While he tried to wrap his mind around what he just saw, Lizzy said something that just didn’t make sense at all.

“Is that… Riptide? Or… wait…” Like him, she blinked. “Is that Daylight?!”

“What is actually going on? This isn’t easier at all.”

“Ok, ok, maybe some words are necessary. What if I told you that I’m holding… everything you see?” They had to have confusion written all over their faces because he smiled and then continued.

“So. I possess powers from different fandoms. I don’t have the best things from each one… actually let me go into detail a bit. I have Sage Mode, but only the sensing portion of it. Basically, I can feel a lot of stuff, including your feelings. That’s why sometimes it might seem like I know your thoughts but I just kind of… reconstruct them based on your emotions.” While he said this, he spun a kunai around his index finger.

“I can control things, by pushing and pulling them around. Guess I can hold them in the air too.” Of course, he waved a blue lightsaber around. Yes, it did make _the_ hum.

“I can do some air bending, but I definitely can’t control any of the other 3 elements.” Oh, so that’s where the fan was from. Also, it wasn’t actually a fan, but a glider. “If I had all 3 of them, I guess all of this would’ve been a _breeze_.” They all had a poker face.

“I have basic control over water, but what I can do is make some sea water appear when I want.” Right now, he held a pen that looked normal at first, but it turned into a bronze sword when he removed its cap. Guess he could write some _killer_ words with that.

“It might not be much, but right now I’m pretty agile thanks to a… hunter.” He held a really broad steel sword that had some blue accents around the hilt. It looked heavy but he was just holding it with one hand just fine.

Also, every time he switched weapons, he made it look really natural and fluid, which was impressive in and of itself. The weapon types were definitely completely different, their balance shouldn’t have been that easy to nail instantly.

“Last but definitely not least… actually I should’ve started with this one since it’s my main power… oh well. I can control this red… stuff? It’s called determination. Although I can’t just do it, I either have to concentrate…” He had a moment of hesitation in which he made a bright red sword appeared in his right hand and a bright red shield on his left one. “… or I can call upon this particular power when you’re in danger. I just… hope it won’t come to that.” In total contrast, his voice actually said _it will come to that again at some point, I hope I can delay it as much as possible_.

“Oh, yeah, I can also teleport, I don’t think it’s from any fandom, I… can just do it, I guess. I can teleport others with me, but it’s really hard with more than one person. This and the swords or shields are really tiring by themselves, trust me.”

You can definitely say you have a weird day when the words “oh, yeah, I can also teleport” are casually thrown in with a tone that sounded more like _oh, yeah, I’ve bought some Camembert_.

“Long _and_ boring explanation. Well, you were right about one thing. At least now we know how well you can show off.” Frank couldn’t stop the irony; it was in his veins. He was thankful he saved them, even though they still didn’t know why they were attacked.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Weird. Chris usually responded with some irony of his own. “I wish I could tell you more, but I don’t know enough myself. Right now, I think I’ll try to gather some intel with the energy I have left and then I’ll come back. Make yourselves at home.” And then he wasn’t there anymore. Just like that.

After a few moments of silence between them, Frank couldn’t stop himself brightening up the mood.

“Now it’s time to partyyyyy!” He started shuffling around.

The girls chuckled but Adela just _had_ to nudge his arm.

Truth be told, they didn’t know what to do. The situation didn’t look too good since all three of them literally got attacked by some soldiers out of nowhere. However, they weren’t in any danger right now, there was no need to worry about anything. Or was there?

Chris wasn’t telling them everything. He was pretty sure about that. But there was no way to know what he was hiding until he came back. Now they could relax for a while. That’s what they wanted to do anyway today, right? Minus the shopping, of course.

Frank found a pack of cards lying around, so he suggested they play something. They got some pillows to sit on and they started playing really relaxed so they could also talk.

“So… what do you think of this whole thing?” Adela broke the ice.

“Before anyone says anything I just want to say that your luck with cards is insane, Lizzy.” Chris chimed in.

“Ehm… thanks?” She laughed, and that meant all three of them were feeling good for now. “What do I think… the part of my brain that deals with all the fan theories and stuff is trying to come up with some theories on this situation, on Chris to be precise.”

“And?”

“I have some wild ideas but I can’t really express any of them, I just don’t know enough.”

“Same thing here, Lizzy. I do feel like he’s not quite himself. What do you think, Frank?”

“I don’t think, I already know he’s showing off.” That answer came with some laughing from the girls. “But… think about it, if he does have powers from all the different universes, limited how they may be, he’s still quite strong.”

“Ok, maybe you’ve got a point. But that doesn’t mean he also has the stamina to use everything at his disposal.”

“He did actually say that teleporting and the magic sword thing are tiring, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, Adela, but he already looked tired after… basically not a whole lot for someone that should be able to win a 1 versus everybody match. At least… when he came to save us, he did do a shield thing but then he just resorted to kicking the soldiers around. What did he do when he came to you, Lizzy?”

“Oh… when he came to me, he basically took out the soldiers and some random commander in two seconds flat. They couldn’t even get close, it almost wasn’t fair.”

Chris felt like a tiny conclusion forming up. “So maybe he’s like super powerful but in short bursts?” The others nodded. “What remains to be seen is… why we got attacked and who else was attacked. Something tells me we were the only ones though. I feel like it still has to do with Chris. Maybe he has upset some galactic overlord.”

“Or some evil wizard.”

They kept playing cards for a few hours. They talked about their days, what they were up to, but they didn’t bring the Chris dilemma up again. There was no point to talking about it as long as they didn’t find anything new. They just had to wait for him, playing cards.

“Do you have a 4 of spades?”

“Go fish! Huh-” Suddenly, there was a loud _thud_ in the hallway. They went to check out what caused it and… they found Chris, sitting on the floor with his back against a wall. He looked hurt, so they rushed to his side. Without looking up at them, he said while making pauses to breathe: “I’m sorry… for… breaking up… your game…” And then he fainted. Great.

The three of them lifted him up and put him on the couch. Weirdly enough, he had no obvious injuries. However, his clothes were now a lot less red and a lot greyer, which probably meant… something. Maybe they were an indicator of sorts for the amount of energy he has left? If so, all he needed now was sleep. A lot of sleep.

Adela put a really fluffy blanket on him and now all they had to do was wait some more until Chris woke up. They went back to playing cards but they still checked on Chris frequently to make sure he didn’t get a fever (could he _even get_ a fever?).

They found the fridge had some decent food for the evening (which they promptly devoured since they were starving). Not long after that, they went to sleep. Adela and Frank slept on an inflatable mattress they found in a closet, while Lizzy made herself a makeshift bed from the armchair and a chair from the kitchen. This was clearly not a 4-person apartment, but it still felt homely enough that they could all fall asleep one by one, with Frank being the last one because of course he was looking at memes on his phone before going to bed. And cute animals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although there have been like... 2 months since last chapter, I hope to get these next ones out faster. I hope that anyone that gets to read this enjoys it as much as I enjoy writing it, since I'm honestly writing it no matter how many people read it.  
> Now... to address the elephant in the room: yes those are Miraculous Ladybug references, you can "blame" [_someone_](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papillon10/works) for that... (btw she posted a new fic, go check it out if you're into ML!) now I can't let go of the references but I also can't really incorporate the fandom into the story this late- yes, believe it or not, I do have a plan regarding the next chapters, the next one will have a lot more action, I promise.  
> Fun fact: I wrote the first chapter before I knew anything about ML and yet I made the protagonist look almost like Mister Bug??? I swear that's completely unintentional, but it's purrfect


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